The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) was established to protect market users and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices related to the sale of commodity and financial futures and options, and to foster open, competitive, and financially sound futures and option markets. The CFTC requires futures commission merchants, clearing members, and foreign brokers (collectively called “reporting firms”) to report futures and trading position information on behalf of the special accounts carried on their books that meet pre-defined reporting level criteria. The futures commission merchants, clearing members, and foreign brokers are required to report to the CFTC position information of the largest futures and options traders and provide certain identifying information for the traders themselves. The reporting levels and/or criteria are established to ensure that the CFTC receives adequate information to carry out its market surveillance programs and, in turn, detect and to prevent market congestion and price manipulation and enforce speculative position limits.
The futures commission merchants, clearing members, and foreign brokers are required to complete and transmit a CFTC Form 102, titled “Commodities Futures Trading Commission Identification of ‘Special Account.’” Special accounts are simply identified as any commodity futures or options account in which there is a reportable position in accordance with the CFTC's guidelines and regulations. The Form 102 provides a standardized reporting format that allows the futures commission merchants, clearing members, and foreign brokers to list and provides the required information to both the CFTC and the applicable exchanges.
Reporting the required information includes filling out a Form 102 and/or attachment to a Form 102 for each trader, client, etc., for which a position must be reported. The completed form is then transmitted, typically via facsimile, to the CFTC and/or applicable exchange for transcription and entrance in to the appropriate tracking and/or monitoring system. The reporting process is time-consuming and error prone, however the desirability of maintaining a hard-copy, i.e., a paper trail, has outweighed the convenience of simply maintaining and transmitting the information electronically.
It would be desirable to provide a product and method of reporting the required information that addresses these shortcomings. Moreover, it would be desirable to automate the reporting process to increase efficiency and accuracy. Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the following Detailed Description of the Invention and the figures.